Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 4/7/26

0:00This is a Monday.com ad. TheSameMonday.com helping people worldwide getting work done faster and better. TheSameMonday.com designed for every team and every industry. TheSameMonday.com with built-in AI. Scaling your work from day one. TheSameMonday.com that your team will actually love using. TheSameMonday.com with an easy and intuitive setup. Go to Monday.com and try it for free. Yes, TheSameMonday.com. This is Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Mycelis, and this is your Breaking News. Let's get to the latest developments in Donald Trump's unlawful and catastrophic war against Iran after Donald Trump threatening more genocide and war crimes earlier this morning by obliterating

0:52Ben Meiselas:the whole civilization of Iran. The whole civilization will die tonight. Iran then said, Why would we talk to you if you're talking about obliterating our whole civilization? Iran's cut off even any exchange of messages that Pakistan was trying to do because the Trump regime is begging Pakistan to try to come up with some deal or framework for negotiations with Iran. And now where we're at is Donald Trump is trying to negotiate for an extension to his own arbitrary deadline. U.S. and Arab officials say talks now center around getting a deadline extension. No deal. So the question is, with about four hours remaining, less than four hours remaining, The discussion center around, can I get an extension on yet another arbitrary deadline that I've set and stating that if you don't comply with my deadline, I will obliterate your entire civilization.

2:02Now, here are some updates of where things stand.

2:08Ben Meiselas:Sirens and explosions have been heard in the last few minutes over Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates as Iran launches yet another ballistic missile attack targeting the Gulf nations, this being the first attack in roughly a week against Qatar's capital of Doha, although a Qatari flag ship that was recently in Dubai, a liquidified natural gas ship, was struck a few days back by Iran in retaliation for the Trump regime and Netanyahu's attack on Iranian infrastructure. You have Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shabazz Sharif. He's requesting that Donald Trump extend his Iran deadline by at least two weeks, while also asking Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, this according to Reuters.

3:01Ben Meiselas:On that news, that Donald Trump may be taco-ing yet again, that Donald Trump may be extending the deadline after talking about obliterating an entire civilization, the markets which were crashing today were further manipulated and bounce back on that news. This is the cycle that we live in. It is a humiliation ritual, frankly, for these United States of America. You see there are audio listeners. I'm showing on video the S &P 500 surging on the news that Pakistan has asked for a two-week extension of Donald Trump's deadlines after Iran cut off communication with Pakistan because Donald Trump said, I'm going to obliterate your civilization.

3:51Ben Meiselas:And then Trump and Netanyahu launched coordinated attacks on railway, on Karg Island, on other infrastructure in Tehran. And now Iran is retaliating against the Arab nation neighbors where there are American military interests. Also, during these, I'm not even sure you call it, mediations, yeah, the IDF announced that it attacked eight bridges in Iran today. You know, it was notable. You know, my eyes actually hurt a little bit. I really didn't get much sleep last night because I was following the developments. And I thought at one point there could have been an opportunity for a ceasefire because I saw Iran's ambassador.

4:36Ben Meiselas:to, I didn't, I knew that Iran said that they would never agree to a ceasefire. So let me start off with that premise. They said they want a permanent security guarantee for themselves, for the Houthis, for Hezbollah, for the Shiite militia groups in Iraq. They want full reparations for the war. They want to control the Australian for moves. They won't give up their ballistic missiles, Shahid drones, and FPV drones. And they want America off the military bases in the region. And they said that they, and they don't want a ceasefire because a ceasefire means temporary. And they view any ceasefire as something that Donald Trump will manipulate with Netanyahu and attack during a ceasefire or try to increase the munitions that are depleted at this point.

5:24Ben Meiselas:So Iran's like, why would we give you basically time to recover just when you're going to attack us again, that you will use the ceasefire in bad faith. So I never thought Iran would agree to a ceasefire, but hope springs eternal, right? So at, what is it? 2 a.m. My time, 1.30 a.m. My time. I saw this Iranian ambassador to Pakistan. He made some like positive comment. It was like, you know, I want to thank the great mediators in Pakistan and we'll hopefully have news soon. I was like, oh, you know, maybe, maybe there's a breakthrough. I don't, I don't know. I mean, here was the post. I mean, this was the post really early in the morning.

6:03Ben Meiselas:Pakistan's positive and productive endeavors in goodwill and good office to stop the war is approaching a critical and sensitive stage. Stay tuned for more. I mean, a bit cryptic, but one can view that as perhaps an overture or an opening to do something. And then as soon as I read that, I was trying to dig into any information I could find. What's going on? Is there a breakthrough? Is there a breakthrough? Boom. Then all of a sudden, the next thing that's over the wire, explosions heard in Tehran. And then Trump and Netanyahu just continued to bomb all of Tehran and Karg Island. And then I was following all the bombings taking place.

6:40Ben Meiselas:And then two, three hours after that, Donald Trump makes the obliterate your civilization post. And then Iran says, we're not talking. You've done all of this. We're not having any further negotiations because Donald Trump wrote, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Who knows? We'll find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.

7:20Ben Meiselas:40 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God bless the great people of Iran. And in response to that, Iran says, we don't even want to be speaking through any intermediaries at all. Then the markets were crashing. And then in the past, the Wall Street Journal, citing three Iranian officials, says Iran has cut off communications with the US. And then Donald Trump came begging back again through Pakistan. And now the negotiation is over to, it's a negotiation over a negotiation for an extension. Can we even negotiate to negotiate an extension of the deadline Donald Trump set?

8:07Ben Meiselas:Now, again, I don't care what political party you're from. Democrat, Republican, independent, party overseas, you don't like politics, whatever. This behavior is utterly deranged, 25th Amendment, demented stuff right here, right? Obliterate your civilization if you don't meet my deadline. And then saying, actually, can we negotiate for an extension of time? And the markets are all over the place. And the accumulation of this is just weakness. The United States of America, this does not make us look strong. This makes us look so damn weak and pathetic, like a failed Trump bankrupt organization.

9:00Ben Meiselas:All of the weird, grotesque stuff about Trump organizations in the past that caused them to go bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt. That's the United States of America right now. It is really damn embarrassing. I don't know how anybody, oh, that makes us look tough. Really? To go and say you're going to obliterate a civilization? And there's already been the war crimes that have been committed. It already exists. I mean, let's speak with clarity about what's taking place. before the communications cut off between the Pakistanis and Iran. What Iran reportedly told Pakistan mediators is that their current stockpiles sit at 15 ,000 missiles and 45 ,000 drones, indicating both a willingness to continue the conflict and a capacity for extended exchange of fires between them and the U.S.

10:02Ben Meiselas:and Israel. That number is always consistent with what I thought it was. I think they're probably exaggerating by about 20%, 25 % based on my studies of reading all of the literature and studying all. And you know, I do deep dives and really dig in here to study their stockpiles, what it was. Part of my studying is I look to see the weapons that they're giving Russia. I factor in the, because Russia has their own warehouses that make these drones and ballistic missiles. They're sending it back through the Caspian Sea to Iran. I think about how quickly, and they can make a thousand of these drones a month or more.

10:48Ben Meiselas:They can make 500, 600 ballistic missiles a month, perhaps more in there. And then I think you add Russia's capacity. We don't know how much weapons China is providing as well. This seems well within the range. Even if you discounted and said they're probably exaggerating by 25 to 30 percent, they still have a lot of drones, a lot of missiles, because they've been preparing for precisely this moment right here. And that's where things stand right now, an obliterate civilization post. And then later, you have a negotiation over a potential extension, and the extension would be two weeks. So then we do this entire timeline, this loop all over again.

11:39And then April 7th becomes, you know, what, April 21st.

11:44Ben Meiselas:Then the countdown goes there. And then they bring it into May. And then they bring it into July. Sound familiar? Sound familiar? This is what Trump's done his entire life. That's the thing. He, though, and you have to understand his pathology. And I think Iranians have studied it. And they have a plan and they understand it. Donald Trump's plan, whether it's with his corporate fraud, his misconduct, the way he litigates, the way he handles things, is just drag it on and on and on and on. Keep lying the fire hose of lies over and over again. That overwhelms people. Lots of people don't have the stamina to deal with so much lies all of the time because lots of people want to just live their life.

12:37Ben Meiselas:It's like, all right, enough. What do you want me to do? Or you bend to it because sometimes someone thinks bending to it's easier than just fighting it. And it isn't. You then become consumed by it. And like the way a zombie bites you, you basically become kind of the Trump MAGA miserable zombie once he gets you kind of trapped in that world. But what he wants to do is just drag things out over and over and over again. He could stew in his misery and his malignant narcissism. He doesn't care. He's soulless. He doesn't feel things. He's a grotesque creature. He doesn't care about any of it. He doesn't have feelings.

13:21Ben Meiselas:Most people do. Most people, if you lie or you say things that are incorrect or you do things, you feel certain things that compel you to change, not him. So he'll just try to drag it out and drag it out. Just think about COVID, all of his litigations, right? He just, you know, his bankruptcies, never ending. And then he just tries to find who's going to be my scapegoat and who am I going to blame this all on? and who can bail me out. And then I just do it again. That's his whole shtick. That's his whole gimmick right here. And so he's hoping somebody will bail him out. I mean, right now, Pakistan has a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia.

14:08Ben Meiselas:Pakistan is self-interested in making a deal for its own view of national prestige to deliver for the Saudis and the United States to try to make a deal with Iran. Iran realizes that Pakistan isn't really a true neutral in this situation based on its defense pacts that it also has with Saudi Arabia and based on Pakistani crypto funds investing in Donald Trump and Whitcoff's World Liberty Financial and you know, and things like that. And so Iran realizes that. And so Trump just wants to drag it out and drag it out and drag it out and drag it out. And that's why I say, you know, mistakes become blunders and blunders become, you know, massive errors, which become catastrophes, which become bankruptcies ultimately, because he keeps on dragging it on and on and on and on and You know, I forget who I was having this.

15:07Ben Meiselas:I've been saying this a lot today to people. You know, I was saying, what's very fascinating to me is to think about this moment in time and compare it to the Great Recession of, you know, 08, 09, right around 07, 08 when it started, right? The Great Recession, which you had all of these, you know, you know, these mortgage-backed securities that were bundled together and these subprime mortgages were sold. And once people started having foreclosures, people started looking at the portfolio of who owned these, basically these defaulting bundled subprime mortgages. And then Lehman Brothers had lots of exposure.

15:55Ben Meiselas:So there was a run on Lehman Brothers and all of a sudden the Lehman Brothers stock crashed based on a panic that they had a great deal of exposure into the subprime mortgage-backed security bundling issue, right? So I think about that. And I think about, wow, these subprime mortgages, that's what led to a great recession because it started to be internalized or externalized, that these products would default. And then it had this cascading effect. What's so shocking to me, and you tell me in the chat what you think, that kind of thing, like a subprime mortgage exposure issue causing a panic that leads to this bank going bankrupt and that bank going bankrupt and all of these issues, I'm not even sure that would register as news on Tuesday afternoon at 1.52 p.m.

17:00Ben Meiselas:Pacific time, like that it would trigger some sort of panic and that that would have a run on Lehman and Lehman would go bankrupt. Like we have, I don't think I'm exact, I don't want to be hyperbolic. So push back on me if you think I'm being hyperbolic. So I'll lower my estimate. It seems like every single day since Donald Trump's Liberation Day, the tariffs against the world, that we have some version of data that would give the same types of red flags of the subprime crisis. like three to five times a day, like before I eat lunch, if I eat lunch during a day, because I'm sometimes reporting so much, there's like three to five instances where something like that happens and it kind of barely registers, you know, and it is a testament to the resiliency of the market, the resiliency of things.

18:00Ben Meiselas:But, you know, I mean, the level of supply shock that's taken place right now when it comes to crude, when it comes to helium, when it comes to liquefied natural gas and petrochemicals and fertilizers, which is a byproduct that's created. All of these things, even if the war ended right now at this moment, that supply shock is the biggest supply shock since the 60s. And so the part that I kind of grapple with is the casualness of the language sometimes that this is all somehow normal. And this is somehow just regular behavior is wild to me. And what I fear is the movie Don't Look Up. Everybody remember that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio?

19:09Ben Meiselas:I think it was on Netflix, right? Don't look up. And then they had everybody, they knew the meteor was about to hit. And there was a whole movement of don't look up, don't look up as the meteor is about to crash. And then as the meteor is crashing, there was like an Elon Musk type character who was thinking, how do I capitalize on the meteor? Can I mine the meteor and make money off of it? and by the time people were like, okay, that meteor is about to hit, it was too late. And I won't tell you the ending of the movie, but you could Google it if you want to know the ending. But I fear that there's this cognitive dissonant, there's this separation from reality, and it almost is like we're living in this simulation where the news is this alternate reality.

20:03Ben Meiselas:And it's not registering that it is the reality that's happening on a day-to-day basis right now. And it's having massive impacts that are going to be felt generationally for a long time. While all of this is taking place too, J.D. Vance is in Hungary right now, holding campaign rallies for Viktor Orban, the Putin sycophant, the Putin bootlicker, as part of an effort by the United States to destroy NATO and destroy the European Union. And so both the United States and Russia are working together to campaign for a Putin proxy, for a Kremlin proxy in Hungary. while Donald Trump is threatening to obliterate a civilization, the Iranian civilization, not the Islamic Republic, not the regime or the Ayatollah, the Iranian civilization.

21:10Ben Meiselas:And for those watching and for those on audio, the Iranian people came out. People who are critical of the regime are out there. You know, famous Iranian celebrities who were very critical of the Ayatollah and the repression, and also just people in Iran in general. They're out there by the bridges. They're out there by the energy facilities and the nuclear energy facilities for civilian use and the electric grids and all of the places that Trump and Netanyahu say they're going to bomb. you've got the Iranian people out there saying if you're going to bomb it you're going to you're going to kill us also you know that I heard people are saying well isn't that a war crime as well being on you know putting yourself on the bridge or using human shields isn't isn't Iran doing a war crime by having those people there I mean this is their civilian infrastructure you know you you To me, if you're like, if Trump and Netanyahu are like, we're going to bomb schools and electric power plants and we're going to bomb bridges, which are used by civilians and the civilians are like, well, we're going to go there.

22:26Ben Meiselas:I don't know how you say that's a war crime for the civilians to be in the civilian places. you know and then you know trump and netanyahu say well these these this infrastructure i mean i'm just watching right now it's just i don't know i'm gonna say just i'm watching right now on the screen little girls and i think to myself about the little girls in Manab Elementary School, where 165 little girls were murdered by the Trump regime. And I think about the hospitals in Iran that have been blown up and the universities that have been blown up and the civilians who have been killed across around the gym, where there were so many young people, you know, who were killed by Trump and Netanyahu.

23:20I think about Gaza. I think about Beirut. I think about Lebanon in general. And I just think about basic and core humanity, right? I mean, I just think about these are human beings. You know, and as I looked at those people there, I think about when I'm walking around my neighborhood. These are people. These are human lives. And so when Trump's out there, we're going to obliterate the civilization. We're going to obliterate these people. We're going to obliterate these human beings. These are wives and mothers, grandmothers, children, brothers and sisters, husbands and fathers, aunts and uncles, dentists and doctors, school teachers and lawyers, construction workers and farmers, engineers.

24:23Ben Meiselas:You know, I know Donald Trump says these are animals. These are animals. They want to be bombed. They love it when I bomb them. I mean, that's what someone of the Epstein class would say. That's what someone who, in my opinion, has been a lifelong predator would say. They want it. They told me they want it. They want to feel the pain. They want to be hurt. Sick. Sick, sick stuff. And it should sicken you. It should sicken you to the core. You see that, you know, and let me share with you the presentation that was made by the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations moments ago before we went live.

25:17And again, here's how they present their case to the United Nations. Let's play that clip if we got it, Jeremy.

25:27Thank you, Mr. President. I think that once more this war showed that the U.S. will not bring security and stability for the regional countries. We have no hostilities with our neighbors. The fact is very clear that we are targeting the U.S. bases, U.S. interests, and U.S. assets in reciprocal action. In response to the representative of the United States, I only want to refer to some remarks of the U.S. president, which has initiated this war of aggression against Iran. On 21st of March, he threatened to hit and obliterate Iran's power plants. On 38th of March, he escalated this stress, wanting to blow up and completely obliterate critical infrastructure, including power plants, oil facilities, Khark Island, and desalination installation.

26:40On 1st April, he declared his intention to bring Iran back to the Stone Age, explicitly threatening to strike all electric generating facilities. On 5th April, he again openly threatened to target civilian infrastructure, stating that Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day. There will be nothing like it. and two days resorted to a language that is not only deeply responsible but profoundly arriving declaring that the whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back. Such rhetoric is unfitting of any political leader, let alone the head of a permanent member of the council, entrusted with the maintenance of international peace and security.

27:42I thank you. And while I was showing that clip, things are escalating fast in Iran. Iran's Iranian aluminum company, Aralko in Iraq, A-R-A-K, the country's largest aluminum producer, has been hit in an airstrike. that just took place. And folks, things are definitely escalated. With that move right there, I don't see how there's any way that Iran agrees to anything. And here's the thing, and I talked about this in the podcast that I do with my brothers. I teach negotiation at a law school. I teach, it's part of my semester, I teach negotiations at USC Law for law students and for undergrad. While you're involved in a negotiation and a mediation, the worst things that you can do are set arbitrary and fake deadlines, not understand the adversary in a negotiation at any level at all, not have trusted points of contact so that you're speaking with one voice to your adversary so they know who you trust or who they can trust or that one person's not going to undermine the other person.

29:24During a mediation, the parties, in a good mediation that leads to a resolution, you both leave a little bit on the table, right? Both sides leave a little bit. That's often the sign that there's a good negotiation. The purpose of a negotiation is not obliteration. Obliteration, often in the world that I lived in before Midas Touch, was litigation, right? If you couldn't resolve a dispute through negotiation, through mediation, you would litigate it. And even during litigations, hostilities in a legal sense, There would be opportunities to mediate. But if during your mediation, you took actions that would be escalating during a mediated session, your mediation would be derailed immediately.

30:29And so lots of the mediation process is hearing the other side out, listening,

30:37Ben Meiselas:adapting, exchanging information. And Donald Trump, not only is he a bad negotiator, He's the worst negotiator because he never negotiates. And this is how Iran sees it. You can negotiate with them because Trump views negotiation as a zero-sum game. I take your life. That's not a negotiation. And because Trump had daddy's money and because Trump would blame others when he would lose or whatever it is, Trump's use of a mediation or a negotiation was actually a trap. Lure people in under the pretext of discussions and then screw them over in the middle of it while you lure them in and set a trap.

31:33Ben Meiselas:And they did that with Iran the first time and then the second time. So Iran's like, I'm not going to talk to Kushner or Whitcoff. Like, no way. And that's one of the reasons why Iran's like, well, maybe we should talk to Congress. Like, is there someone in the United States Congress who could, like, do something? And the answer is no. You have MAGA Mike Johnson. You got John Thune. you got these sycophants who don't view themselves as having any constitutional authority, even though they're a co-equal branch of government. And so what we're seeing yet again right now, right, just think about it.

32:16The deadline that Donald Trump set was 8 Eastern,

32:20Ben Meiselas:8 Eastern, okay? If you want to make a deal with Iran, the way to go about it is not to say I'm going to obliterate your entire civilization and three hours before the deadline, it's not to start blowing up Iran's aluminum company. Look at that. Look at that. There's no negotiation with that. So all you're creating is an escalatory environment. And often in this situation, mutually assured destruction. And so how do you think Iran responds to this? Well, Iran responds to this by telling Pakistan or Saudi Arabia or whoever. Okay, see you later. We're going to bomb you all now. And they say, look what they did to us.